In my head I didn't have far to cycle today but it was still 80km. It shows how far I've come when I'm classing a tarmacked 80km as an "easy" day. Things are never easy in Africa so I'm never complacent but mentally I tell myself that it will be better than yesterday.
I tapped Robert up for some more rice and beans to fuel the engine. He was standing outside a different road stop this time looking for me like a meerkat. Not sure why they move slightly down the road for dinner time, seems alot of unnecessary hassle but the food was the same and it did the job.
The ride was very relaxing, there wasn't much change in scenery or much traffic so I fell deep into thought as I usually do on quiet days. Tanzania is probably the cleanest African country I've been to. I've been really disappointed with Ethiopians and Kenyans with their lack of pride to keep their country clean. I've kept plastic bags and bottles with me for miles sometimes days in order to find a proper place to discard them, only for the local to take it and chuck it over his head right in from of me. In bigger city's its even worse, if I'm following closely behind a tuktuk for example, my ride can swiftly turn into real life game of Mario Kart as I have to avoid the rubbish as they chuck it out the window, more often than not, it's a Banana skin! In Tanzania they do it as well but it seems the other people are better at picking it up and using it.
As I gazed into the distance, all I could do was take in how green Tanzania is, its ridiculous! There are so many different bushes and grasses that all merge together to produce a mass of lush greenery, its positively tropical.
All I had to focus on was my shadow in front of me. I was in "road cyclist" mode. I felt good (despite being ridiculously hot) dressed all in black. Black shoes, black socks (black legs) black under armour, black cycling shorts, black tshirt and black gloves merged as one with the Dark Destroyer himself who also boasts black accessories. My skin is getting darker everyday (mainly dirt) and my shadow was even black too as it gently pulsated side to side, eating up the black tarmac in front of me. I felt strong, my music as it has done on so many occasions felt like a theme tune to my life "the movie." Today the movie would be Days of Thunder (on two wheels) as I was in far too good a mood to be "fast and furious"
I've been trying to keep as hydrated as possible as I know I don't drink enough when I'm excited and making good progress, so I stopped for some water not because I felt I needed it but because I felt I had to. It was a standard quick stop where i found a little wooden shed that sells water, soda, biscuits and random other things that i pay no attention to. I had the standard conversation of "where you from?" "England" "by bike?" "yeah, by bicycle" "noooo, hey, (stranger looks to his group of friends and shouts something in swahili in which the only words i can recognise are "England" and "bicycle") then All go "Noooo" i say "yes" tell them how long its taken, where I've been and where I'm finishing and then we say our goodbyes and I'm off again! It's fun to see their reactions, I doubt Europeans would give the same reaction if I had started in South Africa and made my way upwards.
I got to Morogoro in less than 4 hours, I was chuffed and I still had most of the day left to do whatever.
I found a decent room with a nice receptionist (they always make a difference when you're shopping for a good place to stay). There was no camping so I opted for a B&B, as always I wasn't holding my breath on the second "B" being anything to shout about but the first "B" was comfy and it came with a TV so at least that would keep me busy later. I was back to standing in a bucket for a shower however, as it's very rare to arrive at a place at 2pm and there still be water in the taps.
After my freezing encounter with 15 litres of water that left me drying myself with a pillowcase I had one job to do and that was to find an ATM. I was down to my last shilling and if I couldn't get money then I would probably have to lose a few bags and start a long distance single passenger taxi service, either that or sell Beirdre for Brillo services. She would be great at cleaning ovens, hobs and the hands of a mechanic.
The first ATM I walked to was out of service. I had to walk a bit further to next one where there were two, both out of service. This is not looking good I thought and nor was the chest sweat that was emerging from my new grey t-shirt kindly given to me by "Moving the goalposts" I had to use literally my last shilling to get on a motorbike to get me to an ATM in the town centre.
I don't know why but I always choose the least interested person in the motorcycle "gang" as my driver. There are normally two or three that whistle at you, rush up to you quickly and shout at you and there's the guy in the background that slowly turns his head to watch business come and go in front of him. Yeah I choose him. There may be a method to this madness in the way that he's not in a major hurry to earn a quick buck off a white guy so he will drive more calmly and safely. Maybe that or he may hate his life and not care anymore.
In the end I got to the ATM with no problems at all. Morogoro is quite a decent sized town so i made the most of experiencing three rubbish ATMs and went for a wander to find food. There was very little English spoken in Morogoro so ordering was hard. If there's a menu then you're paying too much and I can't food to be dining at such fancy places with menus and table cloths etc so I've adapted a new way of ordering. As I don't know what the numbers are past 10, it makes it hard to work out how much something is when a bottle of water 1000 shillings. In my eyes they severely overprice their chicken here so instead I have beef, I show them how much I'm willing to pay and I wait for my surprise dinner. I was start with rice so I know I'm going to get just plain rice at the very worst. Today turned out to be my lucky day, I may have waited till Neptune's moons aligned with the sun to get it but ma man came out with a huge plate of rice and BBQ'd beef. It's a game that can work savagely both ways, especially if you're really hungry but I love it for days like this, and I certainly wasn't leaving hungry.
On my way back to the room I spotted a football training session just starting. I stopped my tired motorcyclist and decided I would grin and bear the first 45 minutes to an hour of fitness to see if I can pick up a few things when they actually start kicking the ball around. The players looked decent, big strong adults, fast and all very capable on the ball. I managed 20 minutes when they started set pieces as the first one was stopped by a kid on the sidelines playing with a whistle, the second one, the ball took a ridiculous bounce and almost landed in the pitch side heap of flaming rubbish and the third one broke down in attack and was talked about for 15minutes. I still stand by my statement that an African team will get to a semi/final of a major competition within the next 3 world cups but it would probably need a European coach to do it or a little more luck than what Asamoah Gyan had!
I left the crowds of interested locals and walked back to my room.
I had big expectations for tomorrow. I would be riding 110km through a National Park and it could be quite a memorable day so I needed to get some decent rest and be up early if possible.
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